Retired CIA officer McGrath enters Dem primary
Race for Rep. Kind’s seat to be closely watched
MADISON – A retired national security officer and daughter of a former congressman who fought gerrymandering is entering the race to represent her father’s former district in western Wisconsin.
Deb McGrath, a Democrat from Menomonie, launched her campaign for Congress on Tuesday — joining state Sen. Brad Pfaff, Eau Claire business owner Rebecca Cooke and U.S. Navy veteran Brett Knudsen in the Democratic primary. McGrath worked as a national security officer for 25 years in positions with the U.S. Army, the U.S. State Department and CIA, according to a news release.
“While abroad, I witnessed how countries could thrive or decline based on government responsiveness,” she said in a statement. “Our country struggles to find solutions to issues that impact our national security: adequate education, affordable health care, basic infrastructure, and economic opportunity. I have experience in solving problems through rational collaboration.”
In the Army, McGrath served in the demilitarized zone in Korea and at several U.S. military bases. In the CIA, her assignments included Southeast and South Asia, West Africa, the former Soviet Union, and Central Europe, including two combat zones.
McGrath enters the race at a time of frustration with incumbents among voters who have a gloomy outlook heading into 2022, spelling trouble for Democrats who control federal government and have represented the Third Congressional District for decades.
If she secures the Democratic nomination, McGrath would likely face former Navy Seal Derrick Van Orden, who lost to U.S. Rep. Ron Kind in 2020.
Whoever advances out of the primary, the 2022 race will be closely watched nationally. Kind was one of just seven House Democrats in the country to represent a district that was carried by Donald Trump in 2020.
Her father, Al Baldus, represented the district between 1975 and 1981 in between stints in the state Assembly. Baldus was a lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed in 2011 over the current legislative and congressional maps that Republicans drew without public input, giving their party an advantage for a decade.
McGrath said she plans to focus on health care, voting rights, broadband internet access expansion, and economic issues.